This fortnight Jesse and Sophie have a special selection of science news, plucked from all over town in this, their penultimate episode. In their first ontogenetic episode yet, they chat about breaking news from Yale on the evolution of pregnancy in marsupials and eutherians (ourselves), childhood learning in apes (bonobos’ inability to copy silly stuff), a chat with Dr Olivier Salvado about iron deposits’ relationship with Alzheimer’s, and finally the living funeral of NASA’s Cassini as it plummets into the Saturnian atmosphere — and you’re invited!

Science news

From eggs to live birth: the evolutionary relationship between pregnancy and the immune system — “In our research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, my collaborators at Yale University and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development used an evolutionary perspective to identify why inflammation is used to facilitate implantation in humans. Our close look at opossums could have medical implications for women struggling to conceive, including better success rates using IVF,” The Conversation.Full paper, here.

Bonobos don’t overimitate — “A new study compared children’s capacity to imitate behavior with the same capacity of humans’ closest living great ape relatives, the bonobos. The study found that bonobos do not copy actions as children do, which highlights the unique nature of human imitation,” from Science Daily.Full paper, here.

Interview

The overall differences in terms of the iron-sensitive biomarker between people with high and low level of Amyloid protein in the Frontal, Temporal and Hipocampal regions (the hotter the colour, the higher the differences )

We speak with Dr Olivier Salvado, the leader of CSIRO’s bioinformatics group, about some of his latest research, using technology to shed light on Alzheimer’s and its apparent link with iron deposits on the brain.

CSIRO news

Jupiter, Venus, 20 years of orbiting come to an end this September.

Love science? Join us in Canberra and be a part of history with Cassini’s end of mission celebration

“NASA’s Cassini spacecraft is in the closing stages of a nearly 20-year odyssey at Saturn. The mission will come to a spectacular end on Friday 15th September 2017, as the spacecraft completes its final orbit and plummets into the atmosphere of the giant ringed-planet – ending the mission.

The massive antenna dishes of the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex will be providing the final radio contact with Cassini as it ends this epic voyage of exploration and we are inviting a lucky few to join us and help spread the word around the world as witnesses to this moment in space exploration history,” from our blog. Join up here!

Billions and billions. Hawley + Sagan.

Listen and subscribe

iTunes — Subscribe to us on iTunes and leave us a rating and review, if you’re so inclined.

2 comments

Hey Stuart, we’re glad you like the show! It’s nice to hear from you 🙂
The first 12 episodes of Interronauts were a bit of a trial, and from here, we’ll need to evaluate the show before we’re given the ‘green light’ to go ahead for more. Thanks again for listening and we hope to be back in the studio soon.
Cheers,
Jesse